


ripped jeans and small dreams

by gfriendsgf (wooji)



Category: I.O.I (Band), Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: 99-liners essemble, Alternate Universe - High School, Confessions, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 21:57:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11022402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wooji/pseuds/gfriendsgf
Summary: It was the first touch that set it off—the ripped jeans that allowed them to do it.(Or: Woojin is in Produce 101 and Sohye is his biggest supporter.)





	ripped jeans and small dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mysticmist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmist/gifts).



> fully inspired by this story abt woojin on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jinbutton/status/864163084868255745) bc it was too cute
> 
> the summary is 100% a joke i wrote to my friend and she said she wants to read this if i'm ever thinking abt writing it and i'm dying at this mess that i just finished byesbfkjdfjdsfk 
> 
>  
> 
> (take note that that like. the first half of the fic is just fillers for me to be able to reach the actual ripped jeans part it's why it's a bit. yeah lmao bear with me)

 

\--

Sohye has _dreams_. The word will light up in her head with some sparkly shit in a stupid cutesy font, as Doyeon would say it.

 

No matter what Doyeon says, Sohye’s dreams aren’t stupid. Although she’s a goody-two-shoes and don’t have the courage to speak her mind most of the times, Sohye’s always wanted to be an idol. But her mom is too busy telling her to do better in Chemistry to ask her for what she wants. It’s fine though, Sohye doesn’t think being an idol is her fate anyway. So she simply admires the people who are talented enough to become one. The closest people they have to an idol in the school are students in the dance or singing club and Sohye is _dying_ to meet an actual idol..

 

 _‘Brand New Music trainee is exchanging into our school this week! Everyone, beware,’_ was the message she woke up to first thing in the morning when she opens her phone. In the mist of everyone yelling and cursing over excitement, shock, questionable fear, Sohye writes a short reply, _‘why is it a big deal what company he came from,’_ a bit annoyed because Sohye appreciates talent equally and just because someone is under a hiphop label, it doesn't mean that they're immediately rude because that's the hip.

 

When she gets to school in the morning, she sees her friend in front of the gate and Doyeon bumps shoulders with her. But Doyeon is tall so Sohye’s shoulder bumps into her arm instead. “People are just talking about this kid because he’s from a hiphop label. I doubt it’d be this hot of an issue if he’s from an idol company.”

 

Sohye nods begrudgingly because it’s true. She’s curious about the trainee student too because she admires idols or artists in general since she’s ever watched TV but people are talking about the trainee they never met yet as if he's the neighbourhood's gangster.

 

The rumour spreads like wildfire. Everyone copy pastes the same message into their own respective class chatrooms, each message getting longer from the MSGs to make the exchange student sound tougher and unapproachable. Even the neighbouring schools have heard of the rumours. Being in a small town, hearing about a trainee is a rarity in itself even if they're in Seoul yet it's never been this bad. But it’s Brand New Music, who wouldn’t lose their shit?

 

\--

 

“Does this mean our school will be known for a famous rapper after this?”

 

“He might be a shit rapper though. Maybe it’s why he’s still a trainee? Don’t rappers usually release songs by themselves?”

 

“No guys I heard Brand New is making an idol—”

 

Everyone immediately clamps their mouths shut when the door to the classroom opens. The homeroom teacher walks in and raises an eyebrow. The class usually isn’t this quiet even if she walked in.  “We have a new student today,” the teacher announces and makes a noise of confusion for the lack of reactions. No remarks of ‘is it a girl?’ or ‘is she pretty?’ and vice versa. Shrugging off the students’ scarily focused expressions, she calls the new student in.

 

And then he enters. They take a look at his face, and everyone are still quiet, waiting for him to speak, to see how different the aura he executes, to see if all rappers talk with the same swagger in real life, to see—

 

“My name is Park Woojin. Nice to meet you.”

 

And at that moment almost everyone simultaneously thought—he’s terribly _harmless_. He sounds like a country bumpkin that’s trying to hold back his dialect and the flash of his uneven teeth makes him look cute. While everyone starts whispering over how _normal_ he looks, Yoojung waves her hands in the air excitedly and points to the empty table beside her when she finally gets the new student’s attention.

 

The teacher sighs but the smile she has on her face is fond. “Looks like Yoojung wants you to be her partner.” The mentioned girl gives the teacher a thumps up at that and a few chuckle at her antics. Woojin’s eyes light up and he smiles for the first time since he came in, the teacher looks charmed. He hurriedly tries to explain to the teacher that he knew Yoojung since he was younger, before anyone gets the wrong idea. They exchange ecstatic highfives when Woojin reaches the table.

 

\--

 

The rage on the trainee student died down as quickly as it started. Park Woojin, his name was, is way too boring compared to what the rumours say about him. In fact, he’s so normal that it’s strange. Usually boys are loud and annoying. In Sohye’s humble opinion, that is. Doyeon thinks so too and it’s why they get along so well. Sohye with her discomfort around the opposite gender, and Doyeon is just—simply annoyed by them. Sohye guesses when you’re that pretty, the amount of admirers you get is more troublesome than flattering.

 

Despite people often forgetting him being a trainee over how quiet he is, Woojin’s name still gets brought up almost seasonally. For example, a few months later during the school festival, he gained himself a herd of fans within the students from his performance with the dance club. The well-known quiet trainee had a total change in personality on stage and everyone was shook. Sohye, especially, was watching the whole performance with her jaw dropped for most of the performance. She could never pull off dancing like them for even 5 seconds without tripping over herself. Doyeon was too busy screaming another dancer’s name to laugh at her friend, fortunately. (The dancer she admires is even nice enough to send a wink in Doyeon’s direction—a pro in fanservice, Sohye would say.)

 

Few weeks later, his name dies down again and a new year starts.

 

Almost immediately, the ‘Woojin season’ restarts because of a new rumour. About their quiet little Park Woojin entering MNet’s survival show. The boys hoped it would be Show Me The Money or even Highschool Rapper but then remembered Woojin’s more of a dancer rather than a rapper. He might be good at rapping too yet people wouldn’t know since he never shown it. Instead, the show Woojin’s joining is called Produce 101 and people only knew about it once the show started airing.

 

The show starts and people pat him at the back whenever they see him, pretending they watched it. And for those that do watch the show, end up getting their focus stolen by another contestant. Two episodes later his name dies down again from his lack of screen time.

 

(Sohye still searches for his smallest bit of screen time and reminds everyone to vote for Woojin daily because he’s too talented to be forgotten.)

 

But one day his name blows up again, this time even louder than usual. The students who say they don’t have time to care for idols also crane their necks to search for him. Sohye stays away from the crowd, it’s not like she can get through them to see what the news is all about anyway. Later when she sees Doyeon, her friend simply shrugs, also clueless about the whole fiasco.

 

Sohye finally figures out why when she spots the messy mob of red hair during the school’s morning assembly. He’s standing at the back of the line, seeming like he’s trying to hide from the teachers’ gazes and uses his friend as a shield. It didn’t work when his friend simply pats head then lightly pulls at his flaming red hair. “You look like a watermelon,” Sohye hears the friend say. Woojin laughs, "piss off, Subin."

 

The student in front turns to look at the both of them when he heard the conversation. “But watermelons are green?”

 

They gave him twin looks of disappointment. “Minhyuk—I don’t even know what to say. Have you ever eaten a watermelon?” Woojin asks seriously. The mentioned boy blinks. Then lets out a long and meaningful ‘ohhh’ , before turning to look towards the front again.

 

Woojin meets eyes with Subin then laughs. “Shut up, you guys.” Minhyuk grumbles in embarrassment, still facing the front. “It wasn’t my proudest moment.”

 

Sohye doesn’t know what she just witnessed, but she pities Minhyuk. After all she’s used to having her mouth move faster than her brain too. But seeing Woojin laughing so hard with his friends makes Sohye feel weird inside. It feels terribly warm and soft. She pushes the feeling away.

 

“Oh, is that Woojin,” Doyeon asks, finally realising the obviously different hair colour. “So that was the hot issue, huh. And it’s a daring colour too.”

 

“It fits him.” Sohye said simply and Doyeon hums in agreement. "Makes him look like a real idol. It's fascinating."

 

 

 

 

Sohye doesn’t know what inspired her on that day, but Doyeon suddenly stands up, palms smacking down the table and Sohye jumps from shock. “Why are you being weird,” asks Sohye warily. Doyeon gives her a creepy smile she always gives whenever she has a bad idea and Sohye is ready to run.

 

Except that she’s always been a bad runner so here they are, tending to Doyeon’s idea.

 

Doyeon says that they’re going to get to know the trainee kid—it’s the only reason why they’re walking up the stairs to the third floor of the block’s building. But Sohye honestly, genuinely, thinks that Doyeon is just dragging her into this to meet the tiny girl that’s in the same class as him. The two are always together and rumours say it’s because they share the same dance academy. But anyway, Choi Yoojung and Park Woojin are best friends and Doyeon is going to kill two birds with one stone today. She’s been patient too long and Doyeon is going to break their school’s silent rule of the cheerleaders and the girls of the dance club being enemies. And Sohye? Sohye is going to get over her admiration along with Doyeon by approaching the subject. They’re in this together—even if Sohye never agreed to.

 

When they get to the class, Sohye is panting because she lacks stamina to climb a flight of stairs to the third floor apparently. Perks of being in college preparation class is that it’s always on the first floor on the building. The both of them peer through the window—the class half empty, some of the students probably already off to their respective evening activities. They easily spot the two students they’re looking for—fortunately still in class or else Sohye is going to regret wasting her energy to even reach the class.

 

\--

 

“If you want me to go and watch, shouldn’t you bring me a ticket then? I’m a student, Woojinnie. I’m broke.”

 

Woojin groans. Not this again. “It’s not like they give me free tickets to hand around anyway.” Then grumbles, dialect thick when he whines, “can’t you ask your parents. Say it’s for support! You’ll be doing a good deed going to the show.”

 

“Even if I did go, you don’t know if I’ll even support you,” Yoojung teases. “Trainee Kang Daniel seems like he’s in need of support from his last emojigate and I, a fan of Daniel and his cats, can’t just see him sad.”

 

Woojin bites his thumb in habit, thinking over it despite Yoojung making it obvious she was joking. Clicking her tongue, Yoojung pulls his hand away and scolds him. “Stop doing that.”

 

Scrunching his nose towards her as a show of annoyance, Woojin snorts out a laugh when Yoojung mimics the expression, making it look uglier than necessary. The laughter stops short when he hears the classroom’s door behind him being pushed open.

 

\--

 

“Park Woojin.” Doyeon calls his name as if she’s about to challenge the boy to fight her at the rooftop. He clearly freezes, and sits slightly straighter at that, then immediately tries to communicate with Yoojung using facial expressions but his friend simply laughs at his face. Accepting his fate, the mentioned boy finally turns to look at them slowly, eyes opened wide and looking slightly nervous.

 

The school might be over for the day, but Sohye doesn’t know how the dance club members manages to get away wearing ripped jeans within the school, even if it is for evening club activities. Her gaze lingers for a few seconds too long at the two students’ matching black ripped jeans, ones that shows their knees—then to their twin white t-shirts that has 'H Dance Crew’ written at the back. Though she’s in student council, Sohye isn’t all that strict on school rules so she doesn’t want to ask in case people would misunderstand her curiosity.

 

Doyeon smiles at him, knowing she gives off a mean girl vibe so she’s trying her best to look friendly. Sohye just thinks it makes her look even scarier. Threatening, even. “Can we take a picture with you?”

 

Yoojung leans back on her chair and watches the situation unfold with the most amused expression, clearly used to people approaching Woojin for the same request.

 

“Ah.” Woojin chews on his bottom lip, snag tooth visible as he seems to worry about something. He opens in mouth, about to apologize but mouth closing again as he changes his mind. After a beat of thinking for the shortest explanation, he informs them, “they said no pictures.”

 

His gaze drops down to his fiddling fingers on his lap then adds a quick, “sorry.”

 

Sohye nods in understanding. Clearly being in a survival show means strict rules to make everything as fair as possible (despite the editing of the show being totally unfair). She takes a hold of Doyeon’s hand, ready to excuse themselves before Yoojung finally speaks out with the most serious voice she can muster. “They said you can touch his knees though.”

 

Maybe it’s the way she said it that sounded terribly convincing, but Sohye’s mind goes blank and the thought of how _strange_ it is to touch someone’s knees didn’t seem to register. Sohye lets go of Doyeon’s hand as her eyes fall on the same pair of knees she glanced at earlier. Her hand reaches out then she holds the head of the exposed right knee in between her thumb and index finger, the pressure barely there.

 

If Woojin was avoiding their eyes before by down-casting his eyes, now he’s looking straight forward to the empty whiteboard. His face visibly flushes, tan skin turning the same colour of his red hair, and he stopped biting his lower lip, his fingers stopped fiddling and he just—stops moving completely in general. He could feel his entire mental state crashing over how awkward this situation is. In fact, Woojin feels so embarrassed he wants to run away while screaming.

 

Choi Yoojung is a little shit.

 

Within .5 seconds later, which was still too late, Sohye finally realises what she’s doing. At the time, Doyeon is already throwing herself to the nearest wall from laughing too hard and Yoojung’s high pitched scream-laughter fills the entire classroom. Fortunately, Sohye’s final thought of common sense reminds her to take her hand back to herself before the rest of the class turn their heads back to see what in world was going on.

 

“I’m—” Sohye blinks owlishly and sputters her best apology. “I’m so _sorry_ oh my god.” She blindly grabs for Doyeon’s hand and runs away while pulling her friend out of the class.

 

Doyeon’s laugh spreads into hallway and Woojin’s small 'it’s fine’ goes unheard by them.

 

\--

 

Apparently while Sohye has a dark history about her first meeting with Woojin, Doyeon and Yoojung instead took it as their invitation to get to know each other and now they’re insufferable together. They’re inseparable and keep giving each other gross stares of affection and Sohye cringes whenever she accidentally looks. Fortunately, today Doyeon says she’s helping a teacher prepare for a school event so she won't be with them.

 

Sohye’s not a very busy person unlike Doyeon so when Yoojung asks her to come along for some help in the club room Sohye agrees without thinking over it. Honestly Sohye's never talked much to Yoojung anyway and took this as her chance to get to know her better. Few minutes in and Sohye already couldn’t stand how quiet they are along the way. Yoojung isn’t as loud as people would think she is, after all. So Sohye tries to start a conversation and wants to hit herself when the only question she has is about the person she’s been avoiding.

 

“Has Woojin always been that shy?”

 

"Shy—how?" Yoojung makes a small sound of confusion. “Woojin’s really wild.”

 

“But,” Sohye whips her head to look at Yoojung. “He always looks like he’s ready to dash whenever I see him!”

 

“Ah!” Giggling to herself for a moment, Yoojung then stage whispers to Sohye—slightly tiptoeing on her feet to reach the girl’s ear. “It’s not because of you. Woojin just thinks Doyeon is scary.”

 

“Why? What did she ever do to him?”

 

Yoojung shrugs. “The cheerleaders are pretty scary in general. They have this ‘better than you’ aura, y’know?”

 

“I kind of—understand.” Being with Doyeon for years made her forget, but most of the times she realises how different she is compared to her friend.

 

Suddenly they stopped walking and Sohye finds herself in front of the door that has a paper stapled on it that wrote ‘dance club’s practice room’ except the ‘dance club’ is crossed out with ‘cheerleader’ written on top of it.

 

“Yeah, about that—“ Yoojung whistles lowly when she sees Sohye staring at the sign. “I love Doyeon, honestly. But does the student council have discussed about requesting for another practice room built? The hall is always full of other clubs.”

 

Shaking her head, Sohye apologizes. “Not yet, sorry. But I’ll bring it up whenever we have a meeting.”

 

“Nice.” Yoojung opens the door and Sohye follows her inside. There’s Doyeon and a very, (she means very) frightened-looking Woojin standing in front of her. She can also spot a few other members of the dance club huddling around into a small group at the other end of the room.

 

“What are you doing here,” Sohye questions Doyeon. Today isn’t the cheerleaders’ turn to use the room and doesn’t this mean Doyeon lied to her about helping a teacher? Maybe this is what Yoojung wanted to talk to her about. Maybe she’s got some suggestions about how the new practice room—

 

Her train of thoughts stop short because Doyeon pulls her hand when she’s within reach and suddenly Sohye is standing in front of a stiff Woojin. The two of them have matching shocked expressions though so she feels better that she’s the only one freaking out over this.

 

Tugging on Doyeon’s arm when she’s about to walk away, Sohye gives her best pleading face. But Doyeon only smirks at the expression. “You two need to talk. Yoojung and I already did, after all. It’s only fair.”

 

No, it isn’t fair. The two of them talked because they wanted to meanwhile Sohye and Woojin are forced into this. Doyeon is bad at giving constructive arguments but Sohye always did want to get to know Woojin. Not this sudden though. Sohye hates unexpected situations and Doyeon kept putting her through it, dammit. She’s not this brave. She wants to run away.

 

Did Sohye ever mention that she’s a bad runner? Yeah, and Yerim has told her once that—if you can’t run from it, you face it like a woman. Even if anxiety bites you in the ass, fake it till you make it. Apparently Sohye’s brain has associated the dialogue in her head with Yerim’s best bossy voice. As helpful as it is sometimes, it also brings her to the worst situations sometimes. But right now Sohye is just betting on her luck.

 

“I, uh—“ Sohye darts her eyes around—she can see Yoojung pushing everyone nearby to walk away from the two of them to give them both the unnecessary privacy they _do not_ need, Sohye's mind screams. Sohye can only hope her voice wouldn’t crack when she talks. “I support you a lot.” The end of her sentence is said with a tilt of a voice, almost as if it’s a question.

 

Woojin was still and quiet, staring down at her shoes as if it’s nicer to look at than her face. It probably is—Sohye wouldn’t want to look at herself right now either. She probably looks like a mess. “You’re my fixed pick and I hoped you can shine more once you get in a higher rank because your talent deserves it,” Sohye continues in one breath and mentally patting herself at the back for not messing up her sentence. Then she realises she never mentioned just _what_ she was talking about and dies even more inside.

 

Fortunately Woojin didn’t let her die for too long because he’s finally opening his mouth to mutter a small, “thank you.” Of course, Woojin is smart. He understands she meant about the show, thank god. He’s lifting his head now, but Woojin is still not looking straight at her and instead at the wall behind her. “Your votes really meant a lot—I would’ve been eliminated if it weren’t for you, y’know. I really, really appreciate the support. I, um—needed them.”

 

Sohye doesn’t know why she’s blushing? This is just a conversation between a contestant and his fan, Sohye convinces herself. But her face is hot and looking at Woojin being as embarrassed as her doesn’t make it better.

 

 

 

 

“Ah, first love is always the sweetest.” Yoojung says, voice purposely louder than necessary. Woojin feels himself flushing an even darker shade of red at the comment, the small confidence he built up just now immediately crumbles down. Choi Yoojung is going to get it later. But for now, Woojin chews on his bottom lip and wrecks his head for the best way to ask Sohye for her number.

 

\--

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> go support park woojin and samuel on broduce thank you


End file.
